Wednesday, September 14, 2011

93 accord oil leak, help finding the source.?

I have a '93 accord with about 220K miles on it, it developed an oil leak about 6 months ago, that just recently got much worse. It drips on the exhaust and causes alot of smoke and smell.

Now I have degreased and inspected the engine many times, and even used some UV die. It does not seem to be coming from the valve cover as far as I can tell, and it does not seem to be coming from the oil pan gasket either. One of the places it gets is all over the oil filter, however I've replaced the oil filter twice (during regular oil changes) and that hasn't helped it, I even tightened it much tighter than normal last time and that hasn't helped. It almost seems like its coming from above the oil filter, but not as high as the valve cover. Is there something in that area that could be leaking?

The other area it seems to be coming from is the area where the belts are at, however it really coats the whole back side of the engine, so its pretty much covering the belt area, as well as the oil filter area, and pretty much everything inbetween. What other places could it be leaking from if its not the pan, valve cover, or filter?

And also how big of a job would it be to fix an oil leak if it is coming from somewhere such as the belt area, I mean does that involve having to heavily dismantle the engine? Like getting all the way to the crankshaft or pistons or something to replace a seal? Or is it a simpler fix than that, that can be done in my garage?

Is it a big and costly enough job that I might want to consider taking the car to a rebuild shop and have the whole engine rebuilt, or have a new (or low mileage) engine put in at a shop?

Thanks.93 accord oil leak, help finding the source.?check the crankshaft seals, from both sides. check if it's transmission fluid.